Mumbai: Restaurant owners move HC against ban on hookah bars

The pleas state that the petitioners are aggrieved by the “high-handed action” of the state government, putting a complete ban on the business of hookah parlours across the state.

On October 4, the government had brought into effect a statutory amendment to the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition) Act (COTPA) of 2003 to ban hookah parlours. The amendment prohibits any person from owning or opening and running on behalf of someone else, a hookah parlour at any place in the state, including at eating houses.

Senior counsel Anil Anturkar, arguing for the petitioners, told the court that the government has not banned  tobacco but its consumption through hookah.  Anturkar submitted that the reason for the ban is the “Kamla Mills incident” (14 people had lost their lives in  December 2017 after two restaurants were gutted in a blaze in Mumbai) and many college students going to hookah parlours.

Anturkar added that many accidents occur in the city, that does not mean that the production of cars is stopped. The petition stated that the “entire business cannot be stopped and that will be disproportionate to the need for the purpose of imposing the restriction”. It added that the ban would result in a large number people losing their livelihood.